Where does HiFi Fall on the Shortest Runs List?
Where does HiFi Fall on the Shortest Runs List?
Yankeefan007
Broadway Legend Joined: 3/20/04
#1Where does HiFi Fall on the Shortest Runs List?
Posted: 12/12/06 at 10:05pm
We need someone like Margo or Bennett to answer this question.
Where is High Fidelity on the list of shortest musical runs?
MargoChanning
Broadway Legend Joined: 4/5/04
#1re: Where does HiFi Fall on the Shortest Runs List?
Posted: 12/12/06 at 10:38pm
It won't be on it.
There are literally hundreds of musicals in history that closed out of town, opened and closed in one night, or opened and ran less than a week. HIGH FIDELITY will have run two weeks by the time it closes -- making it far more "successful" than hundreds of other previous flops.
Now, if you want to make a list of shows from say the last 15 to 20 years or so -- when producers have rarely closed a flop on opening night and have often kept pumping money into doomed shows for weeks and even months at a time to no avail -- then HIGH FIDELITY might be in the top 20 or so.
"What a story........ everything but the bloodhounds snappin' at her rear end." -- Birdie
[http://margochanning.broadwayworld.com/]
"The Devil Be Hittin' Me" -- Whitney
shesamarshmallow
Broadway Legend Joined: 3/23/06
#2re: Where does HiFi Fall on the Shortest Runs List?
Posted: 12/12/06 at 10:40pmFrom what I remember of the statistics posted when The Times closed, it's the shortest run of the decade.
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Yankeefan007
Broadway Legend Joined: 3/20/04
#3re: Where does HiFi Fall on the Shortest Runs List?
Posted: 12/12/06 at 10:40pmNoted. Thanks, Margo. You are, as always, a font of theatrical knowledge.
Jon
Broadway Legend Joined: 2/20/04
#4re: Where does HiFi Fall on the Shortest Runs List?
Posted: 12/12/06 at 11:02pmWhile browsing through some old "Theatre Worlds" from the early 1960's, I noticed how many more shows opened each season back then. At LEAST a dozen musicals and twenty plays opened each year - and typicaly at least seven or eight of those would close in a week or less. There were lots of plays by playwrights you never heard of (before or since)that ran one performance. If you had lousy advance sales, and got lousy reviews, you just closed.
MargoChanning
Broadway Legend Joined: 4/5/04
#5re: Where does HiFi Fall on the Shortest Runs List?
Posted: 12/12/06 at 11:02pm
Some of the other short runs of the decade:
Bobbi Boland (0 -- closed in previews)
The Confederate Widow Tells All (1)
Prymate (5)
More To Love (5)
Blonde in the Thunderbird (9)
Macbeth w/ Kelsey Grammar (13)
Jackie Mason's Laughing Room Only (14)
"What a story........ everything but the bloodhounds snappin' at her rear end." -- Birdie
[http://margochanning.broadwayworld.com/]
"The Devil Be Hittin' Me" -- Whitney
#6re: Where does HiFi Fall on the Shortest Runs List?
Posted: 12/12/06 at 11:15pmSo Bobbi Boland is the play of the decade with the shortest run and High Fidelity is the musical of the decade with the shortest run. Very interesting. I think High Fidelity and Amour both deserved longer runs. In My Life should have closed after one preview.
#7re: Where does HiFi Fall on the Shortest Runs List?
Posted: 12/12/06 at 11:22pm
I think that High Fidelity will have had the shortest run for a musical this decade with only 14 performances. (Amour had 17 performances.) I was a little surprised to hear that HiFi was closing so quickly, since someone once said on the board the show has to be open for at least 3 weeks in order for the original producers to share in any future royalties (I have no idea whether that's actually true). High Fidelity is also a little unusual in being somewhat troubled but still having a relatively short preview period of only 18 previews (Amour had 31 and Times/Changin' had 35).
What are some shows that have overcome unimpressive advance sales and poor reviews to still be financially successful? I can't think of any off the top of my head, although I can think of plenty of examples of shows that tried to stick it out but didn't do any better financially (Good Vibrations, Urban Cowboy, etc).
"What was the name of that cheese that I like?"
"you can't run away forever...but there's nothing wrong with getting a good head start"
"well I hope and I pray, that maybe someday, you'll walk in the room with my heart"
Updated On: 12/12/06 at 11:22 PM
#8re: Where does HiFi Fall on the Shortest Runs List?
Posted: 12/12/06 at 11:23pm...and one more thing I thought of...High Fidelity will have played FEWER performances than The Best Little Whorehouse Goes Public (which played 16 performances).
#9re: Where does HiFi Fall on the Shortest Runs List?
Posted: 12/12/06 at 11:26pm
Shortest Original Musical Runs on Broadway (of the new Milennium):
High Fidelity (14)
Amour (17)
One Mo' Time (21)
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (21)
Times They Are a Changin' (2
Squonk (32)
Lestat (39)
Marie Christine (42)
Lennon (49)
Look of Love (49)
[title of show] on Broadway. it's time. believe.
#10re: Where does HiFi Fall on the Shortest Runs List?
Posted: 12/12/06 at 11:29pm
That was the top 10, the top 20 includes:
Dance of the Vampires (56)
The Green Bird (56)
Ring of Fire (57)
Urban Cowboy (60)
The Civil War (61)
In My Life (61)
The Wild Party (6
Chita Rivera: The Dancer's Life (72)
A Year With Frog and Toad (73)
By Jeeves (73)
[title of show] on Broadway. it's time. believe.
BSoBW2
Broadway Legend Joined: 12/8/04
#11re: Where does HiFi Fall on the Shortest Runs List?
Posted: 12/12/06 at 11:31pm
MARIE CHRISTINE was a limited run.
Did it close early or was it only supposed to be around for 42 performances (in which case it doesn't count on the list).
MargoChanning
Broadway Legend Joined: 4/5/04
#12re: Where does HiFi Fall on the Shortest Runs List?
Posted: 12/12/06 at 11:32pmActually JACKIE MASON'S LAUGING ROOM ONLY was considered an original musical by the Tony committee -- it had an original book and score. With only 14 performances, it ties HIGH FIDELITY for shortest run of a 21st century musical.
"What a story........ everything but the bloodhounds snappin' at her rear end." -- Birdie
[http://margochanning.broadwayworld.com/]
"The Devil Be Hittin' Me" -- Whitney
#13re: Where does HiFi Fall on the Shortest Runs List?
Posted: 12/12/06 at 11:33pm
It's a shame to see some of the shows on that list.
Mikem- The Wiz is a show that overcame relatively poor reviews/advanced sale to become a big hit!
"Picture "The View," with the wisecracking, sympathetic sweethearts of that ABC television show replaced by a panel of embittered, suffering or enraged Arab women" -the Times review of Black Eyed
husk_charmer
Broadway Legend Joined: 10/19/06
#14re: Where does HiFi Fall on the Shortest Runs List?
Posted: 12/12/06 at 11:34pm
"But they knew there were 94 years to go!"
Add to the list of realized things, it ran shorter than "In My Life" but longer than "Carrie"
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MargoChanning
Broadway Legend Joined: 4/5/04
#15re: Where does HiFi Fall on the Shortest Runs List?
Posted: 12/12/06 at 11:35pmMARIE CHRISTINE was a limited engagement at the not-for-profit Lincoln Center that simply didn't extend, so it shouldn't be on the list.
"What a story........ everything but the bloodhounds snappin' at her rear end." -- Birdie
[http://margochanning.broadwayworld.com/]
"The Devil Be Hittin' Me" -- Whitney
MargoChanning
Broadway Legend Joined: 4/5/04
#16re: Where does HiFi Fall on the Shortest Runs List?
Posted: 12/12/06 at 11:38pmAlso, I think that THE LOOK OF LOVE was also a limited engagement (it was produced by the not-for-profit Roundabout Theatre) -- though I'm not 100% sure.
"What a story........ everything but the bloodhounds snappin' at her rear end." -- Birdie
[http://margochanning.broadwayworld.com/]
"The Devil Be Hittin' Me" -- Whitney
#17re: Where does HiFi Fall on the Shortest Runs List?
Posted: 12/12/06 at 11:39pm
Thanks Margo for the info on Laughing Room Only! 
[title of show] on Broadway. it's time. believe.
#18re: Where does HiFi Fall on the Shortest Runs List?
Posted: 12/12/06 at 11:42pm
"The Wiz is a show that overcame relatively poor reviews/advanced sale to become a big hit!"
That's interesting... I'm trying to think of others that might fit the description. The Secret Garden maybe? Not a HUGE hit, but it ran for 706 performances after a not so good review in the Times, and I don't think it had wonderful advance sales. (I know they were bumped by Daisy Eagan's Tony win and speech.)
[title of show] on Broadway. it's time. believe.
#19re: Where does HiFi Fall on the Shortest Runs List?
Posted: 12/12/06 at 11:43pmUsing the Playbill.com archives, it looks like Marie Christine was actually extended a week from the original closing date of its limited run, although the original schedule was a longer preview period than actual performances (39 previews and 34 performances -- ended up with 42 performances), which is somewhat odd.
"What was the name of that cheese that I like?"
"you can't run away forever...but there's nothing wrong with getting a good head start"
"well I hope and I pray, that maybe someday, you'll walk in the room with my heart"
#20re: Where does HiFi Fall on the Shortest Runs List?
Posted: 12/13/06 at 12:39am
Remember that HF went out of town, as Amour hadn't.
The Look of Love was a limited engagement. The Roundabout astonishingly announced an extension, which it then cancelled.
Both The Wiz and The Secret Garden had the advantage of being based on source material that was not only popular but also family-oriented. Of course, that didn't much help Tom Sawyer, but that got worse reviews and was just a terrible idea in which the public was understandably not interested.
#21re: Where does HiFi Fall on the Shortest Runs List?
Posted: 12/13/06 at 12:46am
It's really sad how many of those musicals have had Jen Colella in them. Not that it's any reflection on her (I think she's wonderful) but the major four musicals she's been involved in recently have been Urban Cowboy, Ring of Fire, The Times They Are A- Changin', and High Fidelity. Poor Jen Colella 
[title of show] on Broadway. it's time. believe.
#22re: Where does HiFi Fall on the Shortest Runs List?
Posted: 12/13/06 at 3:17amadd me to the list of people who actually liked and continues to enjoy the score for Tom Sawyer.
#23re: Where does HiFi Fall on the Shortest Runs List?
Posted: 12/13/06 at 3:46am
Did not The Secret Garden, great a rave from Rich in the Times?
Always thought that he loved it.
Well I didn't want to get into it, but he's a Satanist.
Every full moon he sacrifices 4 puppies to the Dark Lord and smears their blood on his paino.
This should help you understand the score for Wicked a little bit more.
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Smaxie
Broadway Legend Joined: 9/26/05
#24re: Where does HiFi Fall on the Shortest Runs List?
Posted: 12/13/06 at 7:26amNo. While he was polite about it and respected the show's ambitions, Rich gave The Secret Garden a pretty downbeat notice. I remember him writing at one point in the review that it was like a book whose pages you wanted to turn faster.
Begin at the beginning and go on till you come to the end: then stop.
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